Tinubu's maiden UNGA outing puts Nigeria back in the fold - Minister
Idris described the president’s outing as fantastic because it demonstrated the leadership position he has taken in Africa, being the ECOWAS President.
President Bola Tinubu at the G-20 Summit. [Presidency]
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![Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Caroline Wura-Ola Adepoju. [Twitter:@NTANewsNow]](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf8,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg'%20width%3D'100'%20height%3D'100'%20data-ring-placeholder%3D'1'%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E "Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Caroline Wura-Ola Adepoju. [Twitter:@NTANewsNow]")
Idris said this in New York while reacting to the outing of the Nigerian leader at the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
The UN correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Tinubu departed New York on Thursday night, after attending some high-level meetings, bilateral and business meetings, among others.
“It appears that the world is welcoming Nigeria back to its fold. So much is happening, and Nigeria is being expected to lead the way. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has just done that.
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“Nigeria is becoming a very important nation once again, taking its rightful place, President Bola Tinubu didn’t speak for Nigeria, but for the rest of Africa,” said the minister.
Idris described the president’s outing as fantastic because it demonstrated the leadership position he has taken in Africa, being the ECOWAS President.
“He was there not for Nigeria but for Africa. He has shown a strong commitment to Nigeria to lead the African nation.
“He has also shown the commitment for Nigeria of the present administration to expand the horizon and open the Nigerian economy for investment.
“Nigeria is open for business and that is the message the President has rolled out,’’ the minister said.
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Idris noted that the president had visited India recently, where he had a stopover in the United Arab Emirates before his UNGA outing.
“He came here with a strong message first for Nigeria, to tell the world that Nigeria is open for business in that direction.
“He met with the top UN officials, the Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, and his deputy, Amina Mohammed, and he also had strong discussions with some world leaders.
“He had a commitment with ExxonMobil, where its President of the Global Upstream Operations, Liam Mallon, assured of increased oil production.
“He has pledged production of 40,000 additional barrels of oil per day as new push for Nigeria’s further investment in the country,’’ he stressed.
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In addition, the minister said Tinubu had engagements with some African leaders and world leaders as well as Nigerian and business communities.
According to him, the administration is already beginning to see investors promising to come to Nigeria to invest massive amounts of money for the progress of the country and for the development of the world.
“And his message all the time is that first Nigeria shouldn’t be pitted, Africa shouldn’t be pitted. There should be a level playing ground.
“There should be some kind of mutually respectful relationship between Nigeria and the rest of the world.
“The time has gone past when you have been looked down on as Africa, we are looked at as a continent that people can be pitted.’’
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Idris said: “He (Tinubu) has said, open up the fields, let’s compete, we have the right skills, for Nigerians and for other people in the rest of Africa to play their own part in the government of the world.
“The message is that open it up, we are there for you on the multi-playing field and we are ready to participate.’’
The minister further spoke about the President’s outing at UNGA, where he met with the President of South Africa, the President of the Union of the Comoros and King Hussein of Jordan.
“You saw him with the President of Angola and all of them are ready to rally around Nigeria to make sure that Nigeria also takes its place,’’ Idris said.
NAN reports that the Nigerian delegation participated in all the level events such as High-level Dialogue on Financing for Development; High-level meeting on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response.
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In addition, the delegation attended the Climate Ambition Summit, convened by the Secretary-General; the Ministerial meeting of the Summit of the Future; and the High-level meeting of the Universal Health Coverage.
Also, the delegation participated in high-level meetings on the fight Against Tuberculosis.
The delegation, made up of 16 ministers, seven governors, Chief of Staff and some heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), also attended other sidelines events.
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![President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (left) and Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State. [Punch]](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf8,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg'%20width%3D'300'%20height%3D'172'%20data-ring-placeholder%3D'1'%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E "President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (left) and Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State. [Punch]")